The present invention relates to devices for promoting hybridization reactions used in genetic research or biotechnology. In particular, the present invention makes it possible to use the same vessel rotator, regardless of whether the hybridization reactions are to be conducted in dry heat, in a liquid bath, or in another temperature-controlled environment.
In DNA and RNA research, current laboratory practice requires the use of expensive dedicated dry heat incubators for use in hybridizing nitro-cellulose membranes in special glass or plastic hybridization vessels. Such incubators provide heat while slowly rotating the vessels, over a period which may be about twelve hours. Alternatively, one can use a liquid bath to promote the hybridization reaction, wherein the nitro-cellulose membranes are held in plastic bags immersed in the bath. The bath is typically agitated by vibrators, or by shaking the entire bath, or by other means, to impart the necessary motion to the bags. The latter process is older and considered less preferable than the use of dry heat incubators, but it is also much less expensive, and can be practiced, at least in theory, almost anywhere a sink or tub is found.
The prior art contains many examples of hybridization ovens which provide support and rotational movement for the vessels containing the reactants, while applying dry heat to promote the hybridization reaction. Such ovens are particularly designed for use with dry heat, insofar as the support structures which rotate the vessels form part of the ovens. Thus, such devices are inherently incompatible with the use of a liquid bath.
The present invention provides a hybridization vessel rotator device which can be used regardless of whether it is to be placed in a temperature-controlled chamber or in a temperature-controlled liquid bath. The user need not make changes in the rotator device itself.